

S B 

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L48 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OP AMSRICA. 



BEFORE THE 



E©^f naWLf 



BY Z. COLLINS LEE 



JUNE 6, 1839 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 

OF 

MARYLAND, 

AT ITS 

ANNUAL EXHIBITION, JUNE 6, 1839, 

BY 

ZACCHEUS COLLINS LEE, Esq. 



BALTIMORE : 
JOHN D. TOY, PRINTER. 



1839. 



V 



0^ 



Baltimore, June 8th, 1839. 

Z. Collins Lee, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — We have been appointed a committee by the Council of the 
Horticultural Society of Maryland, to obtain from you a copy for publication, 
of your very beautiful and eloquent oration, delivered before the members of 
the Society on the evening of the 6th inst. 

With many sentiments of regard and esteem, dear sir. 

Yours very truly, 

T. Edmondson, Jb. 
Edward Kurtz. 
Joseph King, Jr. 

Committee. 



Baltimore, June 9th, 1839. 

Gentlemejt: 

I received to-day your very polite letter, requesting a copy of the address 
delivered by me before the Maryland Horticultural Society on the 6th ult. 
Having at a short notice attempted, very imperfectly, to perform the pleas- 
ing duty assigned to me, in your lovely festival of flowers, I now sub- 
mit the address to you, claiming for it that indulgence which its demerits 
require, and oflering it only as a sincere expression of my opinions and best 
wishes in behalf of your interesting Society. 

With sentiments of esteem and friendship, I am. 

Very respectfully yours, 

Z. Collins Lee. 

To T. Edmondson, Jr. Esq. 
Edward Kurtz, Esq. 
Joseph King, Jr. Esq. 

Committee. 



ADDRESS. 



Ladies and Gentlemen of the 

Maryland Horticultural Society : 

At your request I appear this evening to dis- 
charge a pleasing duty, and offer with you on this 
fragrant and pure, shrine of nature, the homage and 
gratitude, which these her gifts of fruit and flower 
demand. 

From the engrossing and dull pursuits of artificial 
life — from the marts of commerce and the feverish 
paths of politics and ambition, we here solicit all 
ages and classes to unite in a festival and taste a cup 
unmingled and unembittered by selfishness or pride. 

Had I consulted my own just estimate of the 
occasion and my unfitness to make it interesting or 
useful, the duty I now perform should have been 
declined, but there was something so refreshing and 
beautiful in the associations of your society — that I 
yielded rather to instinct and feeling than to judg- 
ment, and determined to throw myself upon the 
same kind opinion and indulgence which had called 
me to its discharge. 
2 



6 



The anniversaries of national disenthralment and 
renown are stirring and patriotic in themselves — but 
the very achievements they celebrate^ have been 
won by the blood of patriots and the sufferings of a 
whole people— the laurel and the willow entwine 
the chaplet on the hero's brow ; and many a tear 
for the gallant dead^ saddens the ^flowing bowP in 
which their deeds ^are freshly remembered.' In 
other lands less favoured and free than our own^ the 
waving of banners — the falchion's gleam, and the 
roar of cannon, proclaim too often the sanguinary 
triumph of power over civil liberty — and the proud 
pageant is darkened by the retrospect of battles — the 
sack of cities — the burning of villages and the flight 
and massacre of thousands, before the conqueror's 
sword. Even in the earlier days of chivalry and 
romance, with the tilt and the tournament w^here 
was sung and commemorated, 

'Knighthood's dauntless deed, 
And beauty's matchless eye' — 

there, alas, so servile and degrading a barrier sepa- 
rated the lord from the serf— that it robbed these 
heroic jubilees of that freshness and attraction which 
freedom alone bestows. 

But this, your anniversary, simple and unosten- 
tatious, though it be, is, compared with those, the 
refreshing shower, and the balmy air, after the 
thunder-cloud has burst, and the summer heat has 
passed away. It is the union of all that is useful 



7 



with all that is beautiful — the rainbow of the fields^ 
displaying every colour and fraught with every sweet. 

Surely then^ if the smiles of heaven ever descend^ 
it must be upon a scene like this — for you have come 
up here^ the young, the beautiful, the aged, to be- 
hold and adore the wisdom and benignity of Him, 
whose wonderful works are now spread out before 
us, and to whom human pageants are ^as sounding 
brass and a tinkling cymbal,' for ^the lilies of the 
valley are his, and Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed hke one of these.' 

Upon an occasion of such unalloyed interest and 
pleasure, it would ill become me to detain you with 
any laboured or scientific dissertation, even had I 
the ability or the time to do so : I therefore choose 
rather to dwell on some of the more obvious ad- 
vantages of your society, and enforce upon the public 
attention — the claims it so irresistibly presents to 
more general and zealous support. 

The Maryland Horticultural Society was formed 
in 1832, by a few gentlemen of taste and education, 
who then determined to give to the long neglected 
subject their attention ; and among its ofiicers and 
members at that date, will be found several beloved 
fellow citizens, now no more, associated with many 
who are still its friends and patrons — they subse- 
quently obtained an act of incorporation which in 
its preamble declares the object to be an associa- 
tion, ^for the purpose of improving and encouraging 



8 



the science and practice of Horticulture^ and of in- 
troducing into the State^ new species and varieties 
of trees^ fruits^ plants^ vegetables and flowers.' 

The first annual exhibition was held in June^ 1833^ 
and at this^ its sixth anniversary^ it presents to the 
public the most cheering evidences of its beneficial 
and successful progress: — To an increased list of 
members, it has added and united by its own attrac- 
tive pursuits, many of our admired and spirited 
townswomen, whose zeal and devotion have already 
imparted a charm and impulse to the Society not to 
be resisted by the most selfish and obdurate Bene- 
dict or misanthrope ; while, apart from these attrac- 
tions and resources, it is now giving life and energy 
to innumerable cultivators of the soil, by awarding 
weekly and annual premiums to the most enterprising 
and successful among them, and thereby affording to 
industry and taste a stimulus, and to Horticulture, a 
prominent place among the sister arts—indeed the 
present exhibition of flowers alone, might challenge 
competition in our country, while the rapid improve- 
ments manifested in the culture of fruits and vege- 
tables since the Society's foundation, will speak its 
best eulogy : and the regret must now arise that, in 
this our Baltimore, distinguished for the beauty and 
moral loveliness of her daughters, and the valour 
and public spirit of her sons, so many years should 
have been suffered to elapse in which the culture of 
the garden and the husbandry of the field (taught 



9 



us thirty years ago by the West Indian emigrant) 
were without this great auxihary and stimulant — 
and that more regard and attention is not now 
given to the Society. 

Around us^ and on every hand^ our hills and val- 
leys are blooming with the growth of almost every 
plant and tree^ and we are in our walks and rides 
enchanted by the rich scenes which open from some 
adjacent and once barren spot^ where ^emparadised 
in flowers/ the cottage of the Horticulturist peeps 
forth to win the heart and gratify the eye. 

Our markets too^ in the abundance they offer and 
the returns they make to the industrious and thrifty 
farmer and gardener^ will convince you^ that interest 
as well as pleasure^ are moving onward hand in hand 
in the diffusion and enlargement of the Society's bene- 
fits— while by its direct agency^ every foot of ground 
near our city^ and landed property generally in its 
neighbourhood^ is rapidly enhanced in value^ and 
by being converted into gardens and rural retreats^ 
afford even to ^the dull edge of sated appetite/ some 
luscious fruity or early plant and vegetable^ before 
strangers to our boards — and then, the ornamental 
trees which embosom so many cool sequestered coun- 
try seats, where the invalid and man of business may 
repair for renovation and repose — all proclaim with 
most ^miraculous organ' the usefulness^ and the ele- 
gant and refined pleasures of Horticulture. 



10 



The great Roman orator declared in one of his 
finest orations — that there was no better pursuit in 
life — none more full of enjoyment or more worthy a 
freeman^ than agriculture ; the same may be said of 
the kindred art which gave birth to this Society : and 
Lord Bacon, the great master of human learning, has 
borne testimony to its value, in an essay on this sub- 
ject, in which he describes Gardening and Horticul- 
tural avocations, as the purest of human pleasures as 
well as the greatest refreshments to the spirits of men; 
and considers the perfection of this art, as the indica- 
tion of a nation having attained the highest degree of 
civihzation and refinement. — He says in his quaint 
language ^when ages grow to civility and elegancy ; 
men come to build stately, sooner than to garden 
finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection.' 

The sacred volume also breathes throughout its 
holy pages, the sanction and encouragement of rural 
and innocent pursuits; and the Creator by placing 
our first parents in a garden — a paradise — 

'And place of rural charms and various views, 
With groves whose rich trees wept odorous gum and balm, 
Where flowers of all hues, and without thorn 
The rose untended bloomed' — 

seemed indeed to indicate the preference and favour 
which the husbandman and gardener would ^ever 
receive at his hand. 

Profane history has brought down to us its mytho- 
logy and civil rites, associated and invested with 
fruits and flowers; and the song of the Bacchanal 



11 



and the lute of Pan^ tell of the clustering grape 
and the overhanging bough. But the knowledge of 
plants was then greatly limited^ and few, very few 
of the wonderful creations which modern botany 
has since disclosed, were known or regarded. 

The revelations of the Creator to the tenants of 
Eden^ doubtless discovered to them such productions 
of the earth as were necessary to their sustenance ; 
but the Bible only speaks of the three general divi- 
sions of the vegetable world into the grass^ the her'b^ 
and the tree, and Solomon, the most celebrated for 
his botanical knowledge, enumerates particularly the 
Mandrake, the Cedar of Lebanon, and the Hyssop 
that groweth on the wall, as most prominent in his 
day. 

For centuries afterwards, Botany was but the 
humble hand-maiden of medicine and surgery; 
hence we find the balm of Gilead extolled in Judea 
as the panacea of all diseases, and of more inesti- 
mable value than all our modern panaceas for the 
assuaging of the ills that ^flesh is heir to.' 

The heroic age added little or nothing to the 
preceding period, unless indeed the fabled gardens 
of the Hesperides and Alcinous, in which Homer 
has placed ^the reddening apple, the luscious fig, the 
glowing pomegranate, the juicy pear, the verdant 
olive, and the bending vine, can be regarded as 
bright exceptions — these being the offspring rather 
of poetry than mother earths 



12 



From the days of Theophrastus to those of Pliny, 
during an interval of nearly four hundred years, 
there had been only enumerated about six hundred 
plants, regarded more for their medicinal than nou- 
ishing qualities, and the account we have of them is 
very indistinct and unsatisfactory. — Following came 
on the darker ages, in which the few known arts 
of life shared the sad fate of civil liberty, leaving 
to the world the discovery, by a few Moorish and 
Arabian physicians, of one or two herbs — such as 
Rhubarb and Senna, which are now recognized in 
our materia medica. 

The Roman Era, deriving as it did, its taste for 
gardening from Greece, to the extent it had gone 
there, opened a wider field to its cultivation. Nu- 
merous beautiful passages in the Latin poets prove 
the high estimation in which gardening was held 
among the Romans. — Tacitus describes a palace built 
by Nero, which was on a site laid out on the princi- 
ples of modern gardening ; he says, ^the usual and 
common luxuries of gold and jewels which adorned 
this palace were not so much to be admired as 
the fields, and lakes, and flowers, which here and 
there opened in prospects before it. But it is to 
modern times we must look for the revival and 
creation of botany as a science. — Goesner, Haller, 
and Linnaeus established for it a system of investi- 
gation, by which thousands of new and rare pro- 



13 



ductions were added to the catalogue of Ceres and 
Flora. These great high-priests of nature, reduced 
at once, to fixed principles and invariable rules, the 
study, and by the classification of plants according 
to their natural affinities, demonstrated, that, like 
man, their domestic life was regulated and sweeten- 
ed by the presence of the gentler sex, and their 
being depended upon constitutions and habits pe- 
culiar to themselves. 

In England, during the reigns of Henry and 
Elizabeth, much of the taste and natural beauty of 
the gardens of Rome were lost sight of, and substi- 
tuted by an artificial and grotesque deformity, which 
maintained for many years, and which, by torturing 
the box, the yew, and evergreens, into the shape 
of beasts and other whimsical forms, degraded the 
standard of horticulture — so that many of the Eng- 
lish gardens of that period are described, as being 
adorned with yew trees in the shape of giants — 
Noah's ark cut in holly — St. George and the dragon, 
in box — cypress lovers — laureline bears, and all the 
race of root-bound monsters which flourished, and 
looked tremendous around the edges of every grass 
plat.* 

But a better spirit soon succeeded, and the works 
and philosophy of Dr. William Turner, the father 
of English botany and gardening, gave a right direc- 

* See the eloquent address of Mr. Poinsett, in 1836, before the Horticul- 
tural Society of South Carolina, 

3 



14 



tion to its pursuit^ and added countless treasures 
to the researches of his predecessor — and by the 
innumerable varieties of shrubs and flowers, to which 
he gave ^a local habitation and a name/ the sea- 
girt island became the home and nursery for almost 
every tree and plant; and it is now to the annals 
of Enghsh agriculture and gardening, that we look 
for the most valuable improvements in the useful 
and ornamental departments of horticulture. 

The science of botany, being thus founded solely 
on the natural affinities and fixed laws of vegetation, 
the great masters to whom I have referred, raised 
it at once from being the obscure handmaid of medi- 
cine, to be the most enlarged and delightful study to 
which the head and heart of man could be devoted. 
The poorest plant and the most unobtrusive flower 
that ^blushed unseen,' — under their hands in a mo- 
ment, unfolded the mysteries of its being, and the 
hidden lore of nature. For if the flowers on the 
mountains, and in the valleys, are the alphabet of 
angels, with which they have written secret and 
divine truths upon the hill-tops, how doubly attrac- 
tive must become a study, which shall disclose the 
loves of those angels, or the higher destiny of man. 

Standing as w^e do, at an immeasurable distance 
from the olden time, living in an age and land where 
all who have the spirit to be free, or the virtue to be 
just, may become public benefactors ; how strong 
are the calls which duty and interest, in every art 



15 



and department of life^ make on us^ to be active and 
beneficent in our efforts. If we cast our eves over 
the w^orld^ its past and present condition^ how infi- 
nitely exahed appears the physical and intellectual 
resources of our generation. 

The face of nature too, is more prolific and inte- 
resting, and exhibits ten thousand beauties and bene- 
fits, unknown to past ages. — The history, therefore, 
of the vegetable world, written as it now is, in every 
language, and on every green field, developed then 
but little compared with the present hour, in which 
we have assembled to celebrate its triumphs, and to 
behold, by the light of truth and Christianity, what 
was denied to the darker eras of man. 

But the great temple of nature, though thus open- 
ed, is not explored, beyond us there are many mean- 
dering streams and flowery fields to be traced, and 
hidden treasures to be discovered. — The promised 
land rises in bright perspective, and our children 
must finish what has been commenced by us, — 
kindling brighter lights, and erecting nobler altars 
to nature and religion. 

What a theatre for horticultural effort does our 
own country afford ? The vegetation of the United 
States is as various as its cHmate and soil. — In the 
Floridas grow the majestic palm — the orange — the 
cotton — the indigo, and the sugar-cane. In the 
Carolinas, the eye of the traveller is charmed with 
the beauty and grandeur of the forest trees— the 



16 



ever-green oak — the various species of pine — wal- 
nut^ and plane tree — the splendid tulip — the curious 
cypress^ and the superb magnolia. 

While the oaks^ the firs^ and the chestnuts of the 
middle and northern states^ afford to the naturalist a 
rich scene for investigation and study. 

Already ten species of the walnut are distinguished 
for their use and beauty^ in the soil and in manufac- 
tures^ and as many of the maple^ the spruce^ the 
hickory^ and the larch— most of them now trans- 
planted to our gardens, and public pleasure grounds, 
are the objects of daily converse and admiration. 

There, too, is the giant sycamore, the king of our 
western forests, exhibiting in its growth, a fit em- 
blem of the vigorous and hardy race, who people the 
young, but glorious west. — It rises, as Mr. Washing- 
ton Irving has described it, in the most graceful 
form, with vast spreading lateral branches, covered 
with bark of a brilliant w^hite. — These hundred white 
arms interlacing with the other green forest trees, 
form one of the most striking traits of American 
scenery. — A tree of this kind, near Marietta, mea- 
sured fifteen feet and a half in diameter, and it is 
said, that Judge Tucker, of Virginia, obtained a 
section of such a tree — put a roof to it, and fur- 
nished it as a study, which contained a stove, bed, 
and table, — making a comfortable apartment. 

Horticulture is domesticating the birch — the elm — 
the acacia, and the poplar, and beautifying our gar- 



17 



dens with the magnolia — the holly — the almond, and 
the Catawba, and many others, whose existence was 
almost unknown to us ten years ago. 

Some of the most luscious fruits we now prize and 
cultivate, are strangers to our soiL— Modern horti- 
culture, within the last two centuries, has domesti- 
cated them. — The fig was brought from Syria, the 
citron from Medea, the peach from Persia, the pome* 
granate from Africa, apricots from Epirus, apples, 
pears, and plums from Armenia, and cherries from 
Pontus — to Rome they first passed — then to Europe, 
and with our progenitors, many of them became the 
pilgrims of freedom in America. 

Public gardens of any note and extent, owe also 
their establishment to modern times. — The first 
known in Europe, was that of Lorenzo de Medici, 
in Florence : afterwards, the celebrated botanic gar- 
den of Padua was planted, and flourished in 1533. 
That of Bologna was also founded by the liberality 
of Pope Pius the VL then followed that of Flo- 
rence, erected by the Grand Duke; since which 
period they have steadily increased, and there is 
now one to be found in almost every city of Italy. 
The botanic garden of Leyden was established in 
1577, forty- four years after that of Padua, which it 
surpassed in number and variety of plants — in 1663, 
the catalogue of this garden numbered 1,104 species. 
And in Boerhaave's time, who, when professor of 
botany there, neglected nothing to augment its riches, 



18 



it contained 6^000 plants; nearly all the beautiful 
flowers from the Cape of Good Hope, which now 
adorn our gardens^ were first cultivated there. The 
first botanic garden in France^ was established at 
Montpelier^ in 1597; but the Garden of Plants at 
Paris was afterwards founded, in 1620, by Louis 
XIII. — this noble institution has been greatly en- 
larged by successive monarchs, and is now regarded 
as the most scientific garden, and the best botanic 
school in Europe. 

A taste for flowers is said to have been introduced 
into England, by the Flemish emigrants, who fled 
(as did those of St. Domingo to our state,) to that 
country, to escape the cruelties of the Duke of Alva, 
in 1567. The first botanic garden in England was 
afterwards founded at Oxford ; and the royal gar- 
dens at Kew, were begun about the middle of the 
eighteenth century, by Frederick, Prince of Wales, 
father of George the Third, and now contain a rich 
and extensive collection of exotics, equalled, how- 
ever, if not surpassed by those in the botanic garden 
at Liverpool ; an institution founded by the influence 
and efforts of Mr. Roscoe, who established it in 
1800. 

In our country we know of no extensive establish- 
ment of this description — that commenced by Dr. 
David Hosack, of New York, has been suff'ered to go 
to decay by the government of the State, who pur- 
chased it from the learned and enterprising proprie- 



19 



tor. — Here, in Maryland, there is as yet no public 
garden of the kind — but our Society is we trust 
awakening public attention to the subject. 

A taste is now springing up amongst us — and many 
private gardens beautifully represented here to-night, 
attest the success of individual efforts. The field 
is before us — labourers are wanted — its limits are the 
confines of our republic. — Look to the south, clothed 
at this time in a garb of rural splendour, to which 
its tropical flowers and brilliant evergreens, give 
a surpassing lustre. — There alone flourishes the live 
oak, that tree, which upon the ocean is the bulwark 
of our land and the boast of our prowess. How 
irresistible and magical is the march of improvement, 
and the triumph of culture and art ^ Let the rover 
or naturahst seek some cool sequestered spot by the 
sources of the Missouri or the Mississippi, and 
pleased with the bright and lively rill which dances 
from rock to rock, to the murmuring cadence of its 
own music, watch and follow it as it steals under the 
osier and the vine with gentle wing till he finds it ; 
the majestic river upon whose bank wealth builds his 
palace — science his temple, and religion her sacred 
fane ; could his wonder be greater or his joy more 
intense than ours at the triumphs of art and re- 
finement over the rudeness of uncultured nature? 
Methinks the progenitors of many who hear me, 
once sought the fresh breeze of the evening, and 
plucked the scented wild flower on this very spot. 



20 



now covered and adorned by edifices of taste and 
splendour, and crowded with monuments of civiliza- 
tion. — So rapid and imperceptible therefore are the 
improvements of the great age, that if we would pre- 
serve around us at all the pristine charms of hill 
and dale, of wild flowers and native forests, it must 
be by horticulture and in our gardens. — For the 
hammer and the noise of the busy muUitude, and the 
axe of the emigrant, and the sweep of commerce, 
and the sister arts, are onward with the velocity of 
our rail roads, clearing the way and settling the 
waste places, for more enduring power, and ex- 
tended wealth than the woods and wilds of our 
native soil can afford. 

Our national resources, too, physical and political; 
and the giant strides of our people, already proclaim, 
even beyond the Mississippi, the sway of civil insti- 
tutions, and the glories of freedom : hurried before 
their resistless march, the red man and his once 
countless tribes, is flying from his hunting grounds 
and council fires — and his lion heart and eagle eye 
has cowered before the victorious arm of the white 
man. 

Scarce two hundred, years have rolled away, since 
the rock of Plymouth, and the heights of Jamestown 
were pressed by pilgrims' feet, and consecrated to 
human rights. — Now twenty-six commonwealths, 
bounded by the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, 
are before us, united by a common bond, and flour- 



21 



ishing under the same bright banner^ and crowded 
with upwards of fifteen millions of freemen. — What 
a spectacle for the world to admire I what a cause 
of self-gratulation to us ? 

The ^May Flower/ laden with the seeds of liberty^ 
touched then w4th drooping sails a savage and in- 
hospitable shore— yioti?, from the same strand, the 
moving palaces of steam and the countless ships of 
commerce, depart and arrive between cities of as- 
tonishing wealth and population. I repeat it that 
now is the time for our most active exertions in the 
noble cause of Agriculture, and its patron, Horticul- 
ture — if we desire to keep pace with the wide 
spreading manufactures and commerce of our union. 

To the farmer and agriculturist is offered a climate 
and soil more fertile, varied and healthy than any 
under the sun, combining the heat of the tropics 
with the temperatures of the north and west, and 
inviting him to cultivate every variety of produce : 
while the growth of distinct and inexhaustible staples, 
presents what is no where to be found under the same 
government, agricultural resources of priceless value, 
which can in no event compete with and oppose each 
other, in the same foreign or domestic market. 

The south; opulent in the mimic snow of the 
cotton and the golden harvests of the rice field, binds 
the planter to his soil by the strong tie of interest^ 
and makes his staple the very life's blood of ex- 
change and commerce ; while the northern, western 
4 



22 



and middle States, by their grain and the culture 
of tobacco, form a vast store-house and granary for 
domestic aud exporting uses, unlike the granaries of 
Rome, inexhaustible, and not filled from plundered 
provinces. 

I might dilate upon these animating motives to 
exertion, which our favoured position and resources 
so strongly urge — but I forbear, pausing only to add, 
that if the cause of agriculture and the claims of this 
society have no recommendation from considerations 
like these, there is yet one precious and irresistible 
motive, to be found in the opinions and practice of 
him, the mention of whose name raises a throb of 
gratitude in every heart that loves liberty. — Among 
the letters preserved and published of the immortal 
Washington, is one addressed by him in 1782, to 
Mr. Young, an English horticulturist, in which the 
Father of his country, uses the following language : 

^Agriculture in the field and garden has ever been 
among the most favourite of my amusements, though 
I never have possessed much skill in the art, and 
nine years, total inattention to it, has added nothing 
to a knowledge which is best understood from prac- 
tice.' He then desires his correspondent to send 
him the following horticultural items : 

^A little of the best kind of cabbage seed for the 
field culture — twenty pounds of the best turnip 
seed — ten bushels of sanfoin seed — eight bushels of 
winter vetches — two bushels of rye grass seed, and 



23 



fifty pounds of best clover seed.' What a touch- 
ing illustration of the simple habits and practical 
sense of this illustrious man. — At the time this letter 
was penned^ he had just returned victorious from 
the revolutionary struggle to the shades of Mount 
Vernon ; — we there find him turning from the voice 
of praise and the blaze of military glory to his farm 
and garden — with the same fondness with which the 
infant seeks the maternal bosom^ and in the unosten- 
tatious amusements and healthful exercises of his 
fields, becoming the first American farmer, as he 
had proved himself the greatest hero and general on 
the tented plain. 

What a lesson and rebuke should this incident 
convey to the noisy pride and bustling littleness of 
some of the miscalled great men of our day. — To the 
placeman and demagogue, even the garden of Mount 
Vernon, blooming under the eye and hand of Wash- 
ington, could afford no charm or solace for the loss 
of power or emolument — these serve their country 
but to serve themselves. — Marius in his defeated hour, 
sighed amid the ruins of Carthage, and the impe- 
rial exile wept upon a barren rock. — Washington, 
whether at the head of armies or guiding the desti- 
nies of his country, was the same exalted character ; 
simple in his tastes, manly and noble in all the rela- 
tions of life. — In him education found a patron, 
religion and virtue a model and support, and agri- 
culture its most distinguished benefactor. — So happily 



24 



combined were his sentiments^ taste and principles^ 
that in private as in public life, his example will 
descend to unnumbered generations, as the brighest 
ever bequeathed by man to man. 

Imagination might carry those of us who have 
visited the hero's tomb, to that sequestered and 
beautiful garden with its nursery of rare exotics and 
tropical fruits — the classic arrangements of its box- 
wood and hawthorn hedge, and the simple but chaste 
display of every flower and plant which wealth or 
fancy could procure. — There upon this seat sat 
Washington w^hen the storm and batde was over, 
and refreshed his spirit and elevated his thoughts 
by the culture and contemplation of his garden — 
beside him was her, the chosen and beloved consort 
and companion of his life — like him in the noble 
but gentler attributes of her mind, fitted to be the 
sharer of his glory and repose. — Around them bloom- 
ed the gifts of every clime, from the rose and fragrant 
coffee shrub of Java to the night budding Cereus 
of Mexico. 

The seat still remains, but the patriot sleeps at 
the foot of that garden by the side of his fond asso- 
ciate and exalted partner, — wild flow^ers and the 
evergreen are blooming over them, in token of the 
renewal and immortality of the glorious dead. — And 
when summer comes — there the birds sing sweetly, 
and like angels' voices, do they tell of happiness, 
harmony and peace. 



25 



The sculptured column^ and proud mausoleum 
might (and should) adorn that spot- — but in the 
scene as nature's hand has left it — in the murmurs 
of the breeze^ the majestic flow of the Potomac^ and 
the solemn stillness of the grove, broken only by the 
wild bird's note — above all, in the yet unfaded and 
unaltered walks of that garden of Washington there 
is a memorial, which the ^storied urn or animated 
bust could never give.' It is the pathos and truth 
of nature, — This theme is carrying me beyond my 
purpose — you will pardon the digression— I must 
pause. 

Before us this evening is spread out a rich ban- 
quet — the strawberry and cherry, — the more substan- 
tial offerings for the kitchen are here, also, presenting 
a rotundity and condition which an alderman might 
envy ; among them there doubtless is, that talisman of 
fortune — the golden fleece of the vegetable world — I 
allude to the morus multicaulis, for the culture of 
which, it is feared, all things else may be abandoned; 
so warm is the fever which its prosperous fortunes 
have excited, that, it is said, ^a loving swain in one 
of the fertile counties on the Eastern Shore, was 
breathing to his lady-love the most empassioned vows, 
and had put the solemn and interesting question, 
upon a favourable answer to which his happiness 
depended, when she, with much enthusiasm, replied 
by asking him another question, do you grow the 



26 



morus multicaulis? Oh I no, he exclaimed^ only 
beautiful flowers and roses for you.^ Alas! simple 
youth, this answer was fatal to his hopes, and the 
morus multicaulis prevailed over love. Horticulture, 
in addition to this, is colonizing trees and shrubs, 
for the purposes of shade and ornament for the 
bowers of love. — Should it not then command the 
affections and aid of the fair? 

There are finally to be drawn from the reflections 
of this anniversary, many lessons and benefits, calcu- 
lated to warm the heart with gratitude to Him, who 
is the giver of all things; and above all, there are 
opened, by the study of this volume of nature, 
sources of unfailing joy and contentment. So order- 
ed is the economy and wisdom of heaven, that this 
lovely season of the year, — the precursor of Ceres, 
and the prophet of abundant harvest, by its regular 
return teaches ^desultory man, studious as he is, of 
change,' that here is an invariable and immutable law, 
stamped upon every plant that grows, and every bud 
that opens, alike incapable of change and deteriora- 
tion, and instructs the child of adversity, who has 
been left alone, scathed like the pine upon the moun- 
tain's top, by the lightning and the tempest, that there 
is a recuperative principle in the mind, shadowed 
forth most beautifully by the reviving tree and the 
budding flower, which the breath of heaven shall 
awaken to life^ beatdy, and immortality. — Emblems 
of the christian's hope, which burns brighter as the 



27 



clouds gather^ and his spirit is departing^ and his 
heart becoming cold. 

By assiduous efforts and gentle care do we not^ 
when this lovely season is gone, behold how culture 
and the artificial warmth of the conservatory and the 
green-house keep a perennial spring about us amid 
the snows of winter, and the window and boudoir 
of woman become the home of the dahlia and the 
rose, living and giving out their incense to her tender 
mercies, when all around is death; or blooming in 
unwonted splendour among her soft tresses, telling 
of the kind, gay girl, the fond and loving mother, 
whose hand has watered them, and beneath whose 
smile their buds have expanded into life. 

The sentiment and morality of flowers are among 
the most attractive of their charms ; who does not 
feel full often the pure power of the teachings which 
these little moralists declare. The rose is a legend 
of romance, and its history, whether in the bower of 
love, or embroidered on the banners of civil war, is 
a history of the heai't. — The rose of Sharon, and 
the lilies of Damascus, were sung by the waters of 
Israel, while poetry and religion have associated and 
embalmed it with all the most sacred of their rights. 

In the festive hall, where the dance, and song, 
and music prevail, it is the companion and emblem 
of the young and joyous. — The bridal wreath and 
the nuptial altar find in its purity and fragrance^ 



28 



though but ^the perfume and suppliance of an hour/ 
a sentiment congenial with the brightness and bre- 
vity of the passing scene. 

And, oh, with what unsearchable and deep love 
does the youthful mother place it in the garland of 
her first born ; and should the nursling be too early 
snatched from her bosom, with what fond but melan- 
choly pleasure will she oft times turn with moistened 
eye from the memory of the cherished one, to the rose 
bud or the flower, as the remembrancer of its loveli- 
ness and beauty. Think you there is then no truth 
in all this ? To the pensive and uncorrupted mind 
can there be a pleasure more refined than the culture 
of these sweet earth-born innocents, amid the shades 
and serenity of the garden and the groves? 

The Prince de Ligne, who w^as the companion of 
monarchs, and surrounded by the splendour of 
courts, derived his chief enjoyment from the culti- 
vation of his graden, and with enthusiasm has said, 
^would that I could warm the whole world with my 
taste for gardening ; it appears to me impossible that 
a bad man can possess it ; there is no virtue that I 
do not imagine in him who loves to speak of, and to 
make gardens; fathers pf families, inspire your chil- 
dren with a love of gardening and flowers,^ This is 
the language of a prince, and the testimony of a 
generous and exalted spirit. 

There is, besides, in the culture of the garden, a 
religion silently but truly taught, to which meditation 



29 



gives the most consoling tone ; the conflict of exclu- 
sive and intolerant opinions are there unfelt and 
unheard^ but we hold converse with nature^ and 
from her flowery lap raise our eyes and hearts in 
adoration to Him^ who, 

'Not content with every food of life 

To nourish man 3 by kind illusions 

Of the wondering sense, hath made all nature 

Beauty to his eye and music to his ear.' 

How cooling to the chafed brow and the care- 
worn spirit is the copse-wood shade and the rural 
walk? What memories of happy days and well- 
beloved companions crowd upon the garden's con- 
templative hour, bringing back to age its golden 
morn, its blithesome boyhood : if a father or a mother 
hath departed from us, the haunts they loved, the 
flowers they nursed, the paths they trod, summon us 
back to all we owe them, and all we have lost in 
them : 

'Soft as the memory of buried love, 

Pure as the prayer that childhood wafts above,' 

come back to us from these interviews with nature, 
our best days and our most cherished aflfections. 

The stars have been called the poetry of heaven, 
but may we not with equal truth turn to these 
flowers as the poetry of earth, speaking as they do 
to us of peace and good will among men. 

Rank, power, and wealth, the arm of the w^arrior, 
and the tongue of the sage, have seldom blessed 
their possessors ; and we are called too often to de- 
5 



30 



plore in this and other lands^, the evils which have 
resulted from the ^fears of the brave and the follies 
of the vi^ise.' 

How touchingly beautiful and subhme are the 
pictures of those primitive days^ when under their 
own vines and fig trees^ the babbhng brook at their 
feet; and the bleating and spotless flock around them, 
the shepherds of Israel poured forth their morning 
song of praise to Him who made the meadows to 
nourish; and the trees to shade them^ with what 
fervour did they exclaim^ ^The Lord is our shep- 
herd we shall not want; he maketh us to lie down 
in green pastures and leadeth us beside the still 
waters.' The altars of Christianity never burned 
with a purer incense than this : and are we not then 
invoked now to realize from the pursuits of this 
Society the primitive charms and excellence which 
they impart? 

Peace and abundance cover our land— in others 
less happy and exalted, some flower or shrub is 
the household and tutelary emblem and watch- 
word of national honour. The hly of France and 
the rose of Burgundy, have encountered the thistle 
and the shamrock on the bloody field, or interwoven 
in peace become the olive branch and pledge of 
union and friendship — with us as yet, not one of 
the many beautiful productions of our soil is the 
badge of American freedom. — And why should it 
not be, like the song which animates in the fight — 



31 



let us also point to some ever present and blooming 
token of our land^ which will meet us in the field, 
cheer us in absence, and delight us every where, 
and which to the dying patriot's eye shall revive 
the recollection of his home and country— 

^Sternitur infelix alieno vulnere 5 ccElumque 
Aspicit, et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos.' 

To fix then upon this emblem is a task I commend 
to our fair countrywomen, who should indeed^ 
present it as a gift from the beautiful to the brave, 
with which to return victorious, or return no more. 

These are the refined charms of Horticulture, 
and thus is your Society recommended At this 
celebration it invites men of all conditions in fife to 
come forward here, in Maryland, and devote not 
their gold and silver, but their leisure and taste to 
the most interesting cause and the most delightful 
recreation. — The motives, the land we inhabit, the 
resources of our people, and the innate value and 
purity of the pursuit itself, have been alluded to, 
and all call on us to lend our influence to its pro- 
motion.— The tired and worn down citizen shall be 
refreshed by it, for to green fields and healthful 
exercises we introduce him while living ; and 
there is a spot preparing for him, when dead, almost 
within sight of this hall, a place of repose,— a city of 
silence, which by the enterprise of many connected 
with this Society, shall ere long realize the prophet's 
vision that made paradise the home of the dead. 



32 



Beneath the fragrant birch and the refreshing 
evergreen shall there repose the departed, with birds 
to sing over their graves, and the sweetest wild 
flowers to bloom in earnest of the spirit's destiny. — 
Horticulture is doing this, then by all its pleasures, 
by its usefulness and innocency, we do again invoke 
you to become its patrons and friends. 

The studies of the closet and the feverish pursuits 
of Hfe, wear down the body and corrode the spirit ; 
but here is a pursuit full of beauty and freshness, 
peaceful and lovely are its ways, pure and unconta- 
minated is the cup of its joys ; its study and culture 
will assuage anger, moderate ambition and sanctify 
love, and raising the heart from objects of temporary 
interest, place it on those of eternal hope — keep 
with us and about us the bloom and fragrance of 
life's weary journey, and make us wiser and better 
in our day and generation. 



